The US military's use of Shannon continues to grow massively and is being logged by activists, writes Paul Cullen.
Anti-war activists at Shannon have logged the use of the airport by CIA-chartered aircraft since before the Iraq war in 2003.
For 10 to 15 hours a week, activists such as Edward Horgan and Tim Hourigan have for several years recorded the call signs of aircraft carrying US troops through the airport.
As well as logging thousands of chartered aircraft carrying US troops to the Middle East, they have monitored the movement of a number of smaller executive jets that have been linked elsewhere to the Central Intelligence Agency.
The CIA is believed to make use of up to 30 such leased aircraft, and a number of these have been logged passing through Shannon airport since 2002. Amnesty International this week claimed that six CIA-chartered aircraft have landed 50 times at Shannon, while RTÉ, extrapolating from records of the Departments of Transport and Foreign Affairs for a smaller number of planes, came up with a figure of 38 landings.
Hourigan and Horgan believe the real number is much higher, perhaps as many as one a day.
The US embassy in Dublin is to issue a statement today addressing the claims made by Amnesty and others. US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said last week that Shannon had not been used for "untoward" purposes, an assurance that was immediately accepted by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern.
Over the past few months persistent media reports have claimed that CIA-chartered aircraft have been used for renditions, or the transfer of detainees from country to country without legal process.
To date, however, there is no evidence that any of the CIA-linked planes spotted at Shannon were carrying torture victims or other detainees. One possibility is that the Irish airport is used as a refuelling stop for planes travelling to or from such work in countries farther east.
The number of US troops bound for the Middle East passing through Shannon this year is set to double over last year, according to the latest figures from the Department of Transport.
This is in spite of the fact that the number of American troops stationed in Iraq has not increased this year.
So far this year, 303,323 US troops have passed through Shannon, according to the Department of Transport. This compares with 158,549 last year and 121,943 in 2003.
Foreign civil aircraft entering Irish airspace are banned from carrying weapons or munitions unless exempted by the Minister for Transport. So far this year, the Minister has issued 1,385 exemptions, up from 973 last year and 872 in 2003.
US troops heading for Iraq are generally transported on chartered civilian aircraft. In addition to these flights, military and foreign government planes frequently overfly Ireland or land at Irish airports, and these require diplomatic clearance from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Last night a department spokesman said it had given clearance for 402 landings of such aircraft at Shannon this year. The planes came from 10 countries: Belgium, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Philippines, Russia, Sweden and the US.